ProPublica’s New Reporters Program provides support and mentorship to college students who are pursuing a career in investigative journalism and need additional training and financial support to achieve their goals.
Participants receive a $9,000 stipend, travel to the annual NICAR Investigative Journalism Conference, periodic training sessions, and speaker presentations. They will also work one-on-one with ProPublica reporters who can help advise them on stories, build their industry connections, and introduce them to various career paths in investigative journalism. Former new reporters went on to work for The New York Times, The Associated Press, Fresnoland, Capital B and other publications.
Our goal is to inspire the next generation of journalists who seek to shine a light on abuses of power and create stories of moral force that provoke change. In selecting the class, we look for students who have demonstrated an early commitment to journalism as a career through internships, work at local news outlets, or work for student publications. And where these opportunities—which are often unpaid—are not available, we look for other ways for the student to demonstrate the desire and desire to learn the skill.
Distinguished journalism students for the 2024-25 academic year are from New York, Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina and Washington, DC. Throughout the application process, we were impressed by their experience and desire to write ambitious, important stories at such an early stage in their careers. Through their work, the students demonstrated not only a desire for a career in investigative journalism, but also a desire to build trust and impact the communities they cover.
Looking forward to their post-baccalaureate future, like any good investigative journalist, they are thinking about how they can do deeper and more exciting work.
Through storytelling, this year’s Emerging Reporters focused on covering public transportation, affordable housing, the environment and climate change. They want to use audio to make their investigations accessible and understandable to the average listener. Some already work part-time for local public affairs publications, while others work for print and broadcast student media.
Meet our Class of 2024:
Aisha Bayoki
Aisha Baiocchi is a senior studying journalism and international comparative studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. She is passionate about community journalism and bilingual reporting in Spanish. She is the special projects editor for The Daily Tar Heel, the university’s independent student newspaper. Previously, she was a metro intern at the Tampa Bay Times and participated in a student project for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Amira Makki
Amira Mackey is a senior at Columbia University studying sociology. She is the director of investigations for the Columbia Daily Spectator, a campus newspaper, and is an investigative intern at NBC. During the summer, she interned at The Current, a non-profit investigative newsroom in Georgia that investigated traumatic injuries at the first U.S. Hyundai electric vehicle plant. McKee interned at ABC New York and the Bronx Times. She also participated in the Institute for Political Journalism’s 2024 Business Reporting Program and the Dow Jones News Fund. Her reporting interests include labour, policing and economic inequality.
Chaya Tong
Chaya Tong is a junior at Emory University, studying Biology and English. She works part-time as an investigative reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As an intern, Tong covered Georgia politics and policy for the Georgia Recorder, covered breaking news for The Daily Beast, and served on investigative teams with The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Washington Post. She recently reported from Jackson, Mississippi, covering race and inequality for The Clarion-Ledger. Tong hopes to continue covering issues of race and politics as a journalist after graduation.
Trinity Webster-Bass
Trinity Webster-Bass is a senior broadcast journalism and African American studies major at Howard University. She is president of the Howard chapter of the Ida B. Society of Investigative Journalists. Wells and participates in The Hilltop as an audio producer for “The HillTalks” podcast. Her media experience includes internships at WJCT-FM, the NPR affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida, and in the music department at WHUR-FM at Howard University. She also produced “Queer Seminar,” the third episode of the 1619: The College Edition podcast in collaboration with Spotify. Webster-Bass is interested in using investigative storytelling through audio reporting to amplify the voices of individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Terrell Wright
Terrell Wright is attending Connecticut College studying political economy and history. He is a contributor to Connecticut Public Radio and The Day. His reporting on Generation Z’s struggle to find affordable housing in the region won The Day a 2023 Publick Occurrences Award from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Wright interned at The Wall Street Journal covering the economy during the 2024 presidential election. Wright is a fellow of the National Association of Black Journalists and an alumnus of the Dow Jones News Foundation. He is interested in humanizing national trends that affect underserved communities.
Sit down Gumbs contributed to the study.
